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Lord of Curation Series: Beth Kanter

Our Lord of Curation series presents to you some of the great curators on Scoop.it. They are here to share their insights and advice with you.

Beth Kanter is the author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits. She co-authored the book titled “The Networked Nonprofit” with Allison Fine published by J Wiley in 2010 that received Honorable Mention for the Terry McAdams Award. Beth has over 30 years working in the nonprofit sector in technology, training, capacity building, evaluation, fundraising, and marketing.

Curation is about shifting through a lot of information to find the gems in the topic areas that I help me and my network learn. It is an important part of my content strategy for feeding my network and for blogging. I’m also working on a book (not about curation), but the process is helping find new ideas for the book. Curation is about making sense of information.

I find the best curators in my topic and follow them – it’s like sipping fine wine. You have to be organized and know your sources. And you have to scan your sources regularly. I also do it in short bursts so I don’t get hit with information overload.

It has lead to me interesting people and interesting conversations – that is for sure!

-How do you think curation could be important for non-profits?

It could be an efficient way for nonprofits to implement a content strategy for social channels. It could also be a way for staff to stay informed in the work and topics in their field. It can be expertise building process – professional development – and great vehicle for self-directed learners.

Glad you’re digging deeper into curation! I am on a collaborative curation call now for my organization (@TechSoup) and as we sort out how to do virtual collaboration across global offices and time zones I am very interested in how other remote teams curate together. We’re planning to host a conversation on this topic for nonprofit technology professionals if you’d like to chime in here: http://www.nten.org/ntc-session/12202

amoration

Glad you’re digging deeper into curation! I am on a collaborative curation call now for my organization (@TechSoup) and as we sort out how to do virtual collaboration across global offices and time zones I am very interested in how other remote teams curate together. We’re planning to host a conversation on this topic for nonprofit technology professionals if you’d like to chime in here: http://www.nten.org/ntc-session/12202